Monday, October 27, 2014

SF heading back to KC in driver's seat

After the Royals came into town and took the first game at AT&T Park Friday night for their second straight win, games 4 and 5 became the real momentum changers of the series so far.

Through the first three innings of Game 4, it looked like KC was gonna run away with this game and take a 3-1 series lead, but the Giants showed why they've won 2 tittles the last 4 seasons and came up with an impressive comeback to not only win the game, but completely blow KC out of the water, 11-4. I think that was the big turn of the series, or at least I'm hoping it was. Had the Royals held on to win that game, they take a commanding 3-1 lead and would have forced San Francisco to win the last 3 games in a row in order to take this thing. However, with the comeback, the Giants sapped all the momentum KC had been building off the back-to-back wins and completely swung it in their favor with that thrilling Game 4. It seems like everyone got involved a little in Game 4, with Pablo Sandoval providing clutch hit after clutch hit, Joe Panik coming up big and the big days from Buster Posey and Hunter Pence. But the real hero of Game 4 has to be Yusmiero Petit, who really took over and completely stopped the bleeding that Vogelsong had started, and gave the Giants the chance to come back in that game. If you follow us on Twitter, you'll know that after the NLCS, I stated that I'd prefer Petit over Vogey as the Game 4 starter, but somehow it all worked out in the end.

Then came the ever so pivotal Game 5, a game in which I think all Giants fans had a pretty good feeling about heading in with their ace and one of the better starting pitchers in the postseason history at this point. And Madison Bumgarner certainly did not dissapoint. With the groove he was in early, I figured the Giants may only need a couple runs tonight in order to take this game. They scored 5 of course, but could have done with just 1 with MadBum in complete "beast mode". Sandoval and Pence got the offense going, but Brandon Crawford and Juan Perez came up with the big hits tonight, both driving in multiple runs on the evening and cruising to a easy 5-0 victory. Bumgarner was the talk of the night though, and really has been the talk of the series. He shut the Royals potent, speedy offense out, holding them to just four hits and allowing zero free passes on his way to striking out 8 in the complete game victory. Like a true ace, MadBum just gets tougher as the game goes on, and If the Giants are able to go on and win this thing in Game 6, I think Madison get's the World Series MVP. Now, not to get ahead of ourselves though, cause they still have to win one of these next two in KC. The thing the Giants do have slightly in their favor, besides the 1-game lead, is the fact their pretty darned good on the road in the postseason, and they have two pretty solid bets going in Jake Peavy and Timmy Hudson lined up for the next two starts.

Yordano Ventura may be the toughest Royals' starter to hit when he's on though, and he already handed the Giants a loss in this series, so Game 6 will be no cakewalk. Still, the Giants have complete momentum, have the experience closing out teams, obviously, and should be the clear front-runners at this point to take the 'Series and officially be categorized as a Dynasty in baseball's rich history, but that conversation is for a later date. First off, they need to finish this out, and although Jake Peavy has had some hiccups his last two starts in the playoffs, I expect him to be on his game Tuesday night.